The end of the year is fast approaching, so you've only got a few days left to make changes to your 401(k) for 2012. These five tips will help you make the most of that limited time, and put you on track in your efforts to make your golden years as comfortable as possible.

Investors, it turns out, you really can't trust the numbers you see in those quarterly reports: Researchers at Emory and Duke universities say that at any given time, about 20% of publicly traded firms are misrepresenting their earnings.

Wall Street's big banks paid out $156 billion last year in salaries, bonuses, and benefits. Yet while investment bankers' checking accounts were growing, their retirement savings took a massive hit -- and much of the reason can be traced to one common investing mistake.

Enron may be the most infamous, but it's just one of many instances of financial chicanery in recent corporate history. Examples of such shenanigans are rich, ripe, and recurring, right up to the present. Learning to spot potential black holes -- which we'll help you do in this series -- will allow you to avoid bad investments and purge your portfolio of ticking time bombs.

As the price of oil has soared over the past few months, an army of commentators has accused "speculators" of manipulating the oil market to profit from the misery of the American people. But how much are these big investors to blame for our pain at the pump, and how much is simply a matter of supply and demand?

Jeffrey Skilling, former CEO of Enron, was denied temporary release from prison to attend his son%u2019s funeral, CNBC reported.
John Taylor "J.T." Skilling was found dead at his home in Santa Ana, California, last week. The cause of the college sophomore%u2019s death is undetermined, pending a toxicology report.

The Texas AG is investigating Google for allegedly manipulating search results to hurt its competitors, which could be an antitrust violation. Three companies, two in the U.S. and one in the U.K., have all complained of Google search manipulation.

The infamous McDonald's coffee lawsuit has a sequel. A mother has sued the fast-food giant because too-hot chocolate burned her daughter. But the coffee suit was much stronger than was reported and may bolster the new case.

In the wake of Supreme Court ruling that restricted the use of the "honest services" statute as a basis for fraud convictions, former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling has joined the queue of high-profile corporate convicts asking for bail pending their fraud appeals.

BP and Anadarko will battle over whether the former was grossly negligent in the Deepwater Horizon project before an arbitration panel, not a court. This means the fight won't help oil-spill plaintiffs. Plus, Viacom vs. YouTube and dangerously industry-friendly regulators.

Will Enron ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling get out of jail? The Supreme Court ruled today on several aspects of his convictions, and it vacated one of them. It's now up to a lower court to review the ruling and decide whether Skilling deserves a new trial.

Later this month, the Supreme Court will rule on whether former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling will get a new trial, or possibly see his sentence reduced. In the meantime, Fortune has published a sympathetic profile of Skilling in which he describes three key mistakes he feels led to his conviction.

An attempted terrorist bombing in Times Square didn't stop theater curtains rising on Broadway. But the highly anticipated musical Enron -- closed almost instantly, even though it was so successful in London. Apparently, Americans weren't nearly as amused.

Enron, a musical hit about the Texas energy company's dizzying rise and fall, is coming to Broadway. The story of high finance and fraud unfolded nine years ago, but in an economy still reeling from the Lehman Brothers collapse, it's lessons are more relevant -- and funnier -- than ever.

The former Enron CEO, who oversaw a company that was fundamentally dishonest, is trying to get the Supreme Court to throw out a law that requires executives to behave honestly. If his lawyers succeed, he'll go free. But Skilling really deserves to stay in jail forever.